Getting Bigger

I can't believe how much these guys keep growing! Every year, it is a tradition that I take their picture in front of the fireplace for our Christmas cards. I went back and looked at last year's picture. They were all smaller. Erica didn't have braces. Spencer had ALL his teeth. Erica is losing her elementary look and starting to look like a young lady. Jack has lost his pre-school look. Spencer is looking more like an elementary student. And the boys are reading!! I am amazed .... I don't know why we stopped at three ... we should have had a dozen!!

Changes ....

I know ... I keep changing the look of my blog but that black with white lettering was killing my eyes. It just hurt to read it so I changed it again. You can thank me later if it was bothering you, too!!

And you thought I had something really cool to tell you :)

I'm Listening!!!!

Jack went Friday to a local nursing home to sing with his class. Let's say he was a little more involved than Spencer was his first time! While Spencer did not move or say ONE word and burst into tears when it was over (hiding his face in my shirt!), Jack just sang away and did all the hand motions! After they finished singing, they handed out candy cane reindeer and little Christmas tree ornaments they had made. Jack didn't have a care in the world. I was sitting there watching these men and women in their wheelchairs wondering what their story was. I wonder how many children they had, what is their favorite memory of Christmas, how long were they married, etc.... one woman was fortunate to have her son with her watching the little program the kids did for them. I wonder how many of them would say that time flies .... to slow down .... to take life and run it rather than life running you .... are we listening yet? Maybe you don't have these issues ..... lucky you ;)

A Christmas Trial

I don't know about you, but I got a taste of Christmas "gone bad" this evening and eggnog wasn't involved ....... I had a wonderful day today with my bible study/prayer group. We had a wonderful lunch and I left them feeling light on my feet. I met up with Scott and he was a grouch this afternoon!!! Which is unusual for him. I'm not used to it when he is grouchy. But needless to say, I let him "be" and went about the afternoon. I carpooled and returned home with the boys plus a friend, Brantley. As they were playing, I walked past our live Christmas tree in the living room and noticed all these black small circles under it. I thought, "what in the world is that?" To me and my naked eye, it was not one tick but a hundred ticks under the tree - some dead, some alive. Scott was home and he looked and he thought the same thing. Holy Cow, we have ticks from our live North Carolina tree ..... hmmm.... wonder if our smaller live tree in the playroom has them. Didn't see them but hey, the live tree was fine yesterday so who knows ... well, after research and my sweeping and removing lights and trim from the tree, it turned out to be some other creature from the aphid family which is apparantly running rampid according to UF's website. Needless to say, harmless or not, I wanted the trees gone. So both trees are outside against Scott's judgement which he "respectively disagreed" with me! He really did .... he was more into the facts than the emotion of bugs all over the house!!!! Well, we removed the second tree and I found a bunch of carpenter ants under it and the carpet .... at this point, I think we both were just in shock. Mind you in the midst of this, Scott is redoing the kid's bath and installing boarding and railing and a new cabinet. So I'm just adding to the stress with my tree dilemma. AND he had school this evening and earlier, he had finished reading a whole book and writing a paper before class. So honestly, I wasn't helping the matter ..... but he left for school and I ordered pizza for the kids. I walked into the kitchen and opened a cold can of diet coke and thought .... ooooh, this is good and will be even better if in the freezer for about ten minutes. So I opened the fridge and set it in, well, until it fell out of my hand and hit the floor, exploding and fizzing AND spinning all over the cabinets, tile, fridge, and my feet. Now I'm standing in cold diet coke and watching in slow motion this can spin until it comes to a stop. I was numb ... not a response even came except to get the paper towels. Fortunately, my friend, Dana, came over with her children to have pizza and she walked in to find me standing in the kitchen looking at it. She helped clean up and we ate our pizza and had a good heart to heart. She left later and I thought, "I'll check my email and see if Scott wrote me from class." Jack comes to me ... Mom, I had a small accident with my juice. Okay. Small? How about the antonym of small? How about 1/2 a GALLON of orange juice is all over the floor, the cabinet and down all four drawers, front and INSIDE the drawers??? "Jack, how about you go finish watching Chronicles of Narnia and I'll clean up, okay?" I cleaned up and asked God, "EXACTLY what are you trying to teach me in all this tonight?" I put everyone to bed and layed down with Erica. She asked what I did today and I recounted from morning to end. And I said, "you know what, Erica?" And it hit me talking to her......my picture of Christmas was my family around our "three" trees, the perfect decorations, the cinnamon smells and music in the background. WELL, I now have ONE slim FAKE tree. And the thought of Carol Kent speaking last night came into my mind. She will be spending Christmas in the prison area with her son. www.carolkent.org Jesus Christ was born to die for my sin. I don't deserve my family, my home, my decorations, or the trees, the smells or any of it ... but because of his grace and mercy in my life, He has chosen to bless me in this season with where I am. How are you blessed and what are you going to do with it this season? That's where I landed this evening laying on Erica's bed ... I said to her, "in all of this, Christmas isn't even about trees and presents." Her response? "Nope." Spoken from the mouths of babes .....

Good to be Home!!!

Well, we made it back from our trip to the Windy City .... we had a great flight home. Bruce and Mette Daily finally made it in early Saturday morning. Their flight was cancelled Friday afternoon/evening because of the storm. We decided that it must have been God's provision in some huge way. We hit Starbucks and the Corner Bakery first, being our favorite tradition. Just sitting there in the restaurant and watching everyone hussle and bussle by is just so fun. You could feel the cold air coming in as the doors would open and just the holiday season in the air. We did some shopping. Our favorite was Crate and Barrel. Can I tell you that I think there were at least 500 people in there at one time? Of course, they are spread over four stories and riding escalators up and down. It really is just so fun .... music playing, bumping into people, laughing, etc. You know, in the midst of what felt like a million people, I never saw anyone unkind or outright hateful. That was encouraging to me as we moved down Michigan Avenue. We had the deep dish pizza at Gino's East Side. Patsy was our waitress and been in Chicago for over fifteen years. She had some interesting stories. We talked with the four guys up from Mexico for the Chicago game. They were having some fun for sure. We ended up for dinner at the Chicago Chop House. We never had eaten there before and we tried several places for reservations and everyone was full until at least 10pm. On a whim, we put our name in at the Chop House. They said we could walk back to our apartment and they would call us five minutes prior to our table being ready. So we walked back and sat listening to Christmas Jazz looking at the night skyline thinking to ourselves, "We are soooo not going to eat tonight. They are not going to call us until probably 10pm. Where are we going to eat? WE are going to end up at the TWO STORY McDonalds down the street in Chicago on a Saturday night!!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" I kept telling them have faith .... sure enough, it was probably 45 minutes later, they called and told us to come on. It was the best steak we had ever, EVER eaten. If you are ever in Chicago, you have to eat there. Chicago Chop House on Ontario. www.chicagochophouse.com Ask for Blanche!
And believe it or not, we were all asleep before 10pm. We tried to stay up and watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation....we were too tired!!! We are getting old!!!! Especially compared to the crowd there. At 2pm, we woke up to horns blaring and people yelling ... down from our building is a bar that stays open serving drinks until 4am. Well, let's just say they get rolling good around 2pm. It didn't matter that it was 10 degrees .... they had plenty of warmth, I'm sure, from their drinks.
Aside from plenty of food, sore feet from walking, and lots of lattes to keep us warm, all in all, we had a wonderful trip. It was good to sit and fellowship, talk and celebrate the goodness of God in our lives; the triumphs, the trials, and the plans for the future. And especially thanking God that He doesn't leave us where we are. Revelations from God .... Thanks for giving in and going again, Bruce and Mette! I hope when we are sixty, we can still enjoy the time and laugh at our memories!!! PS Bruce makes friends everywhere we go! Just ask the clerk at American Girl who couldn't answer Bruce why the dolls are made in China!!!!!!

Where are we now??

So I'm still wide-eyed in Chicago ..... we did survive the train ride into the city. We made our way to the Border's book store. Scott picked up two books and I found a book that was suggested to me by my friend, Dana. "Raising Respectful Children in a Disrespectful World" by Jill Rigby. This is just a small portion of what I read last night.
"Today's kids are angry and rebellious at rates higher than any other generation. They are the first generation to do worse psychologically, socially, and economically than their parents. But they're not rebelling against rigidity and rules as the hippies of the sixties did; they are rebelling against the lack of structure and adult guidance." page 2 "When we seek to help kids feel good about themselves (the goal of self-esteem), we teach them to focus on themselves and how they feel and what they want. I believe this perspective keeps children from participating in the world; it encourages them to see everything as if looking into a mirror, so that they grow up believing, "It's all about me." .. Kids with this attitude aren't exhibiting self-confidence. They are exhibiting self-conceit, a view of themselves that says they are superior to others. When we help kids respect themselves, we teach them to focus on others and how others feel and what others need..." page 8
That's just in Chapter One. So if I wasn't wide-eyed about the world this weekend, I've now picked up a book that had made me wide-eyed about my parenting and where my kids are at this stage! This trip was supposed to be care free and relaxing ... like the book .... this is supposed to be "all about me!" but it is turning more into a trip of reflection. God just doesn't give us vacations, does He? A moment where you stop and thank Him for His continued love for me and that He doesn't leave me where I'm at. A reminder of His faithfulness and mercy to someone who surely doesn't deserve it .....
So did I tell you we made it out of Borders Bookstore? We did with the books we wanted from our assistant, Stitch, and he was really a neat guy. We were able to talk to him for a little while. And I did get to do a favor for my friend, Shirley, who couldn't get something on-line. So I got to hit the American Girl store for her! That was another reflection for me. I was walking around in there watching all these moms with their daughters and buying the dolls and accessories, etc. I had a moment where I felt like I missed something with Erica. I didn't know about American Girls when she was small. So I mentioned to Scott how I felt and his words to me were, "it makes me feel something else when I'm sitting on a couch watching all of it." I know what he meant. And I had to be reminded of where I was as a mom during that time. How easily I would have gotten caught up in the whole American Girl dream and lived it through Erica. Again, I remember when I did find out about it and bought her the doll and the twins .... yes, she plays with the WalMart $10 doll. Again, a reminder to me of how it isn't about "me" and how the desire of my heart is to not teach her "it's about you" either. I can encourage moms to enjoy the American Girl dream ... however, use caution and not allow that to be the idol of their life ... and teach them that it isn't about them ... and whether it is American Girl or Batman, which is an idol for Spencer, we have training to do, friends! Let's read this book together and get on it!!!!

Snow....snow....snow!!!!!

You know the line in "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby and the four of them (two men and two women) are on the train singing? At the end, they sing snow, snow, snow, snow in unison?Well, Scott and I have really been singing that today. We flew into Chicago November 30 - the morning prior to the BIG first Winter Storm of the season! And yes, it was a true winter storm and we got our taste of heavy snow. This morning in the very early hours, at one point, it was snowing and thunder/lightning which we thought was hysterical! We sat in our apartment which is completely windows from floor to ceiling and watched it pour down like crazy. Then we decided, what the heck! We are here, let's go out in it! We studied some maps and bundled up and headed for the red train, which is the underground subway system. We had to take it South out of the city and catch the #55 bus East bound to the Museum of Science and Industry. Well, we found the red train and we got on it. Well .... how do I say this ..... hmmmm..... okay. We are very, VERY white. I sat next to a woman who was shaking and she proceeded to tell me how she is homeless and been riding the system all night. Did I have any money so she could get off at Jackson and get some Church's Chicken? I told her I could probably help her. Of course, I had no cash. She asked again waiting for me to just hand her some money. So I asked her why didn't she go to a shelter? They wouldn't take her. It was too full. So as I sat there watching her head shaking and under controlled convulsion, I asked her when her next fix was. She was very high and you could smell the liqueur on her. She told me she has a nervous condition. I wanted to say, "ya think???" Scott had the money and he was standing hanging on for dear life as this subway is hurtling down the tracks at what felt like 60 miles an hour crammed between about 15 people. She got off at Jackson........It started to clear out at each stop. Another lady stands and starts talking very loud ..... yelling ..... she is homeless and just needs some money for food. Not a whole lot, just a little ... anything is fine ... if not, she has God and that is all she needs ... I waited to see if how people would respond and most would not even look at her. You know what the hard part was? We wanted to help. But what do you do when the whole train is full? I wished I had bags of food to just give out ... so many are high ... money will just feed the craving and not the need. It felt very helpless and very sad. We got to our stop at Garfield to catch the bus. That was another experience. We stood outside with it pouring down snow for 15 minutes after waiting 10 minutes in the wrong spot!!! We are so stupid :) We got on and at this point, I had lost feeling in my feet so it didn't matter. I sat next to this guy - he was toasty and very nice. He used to live in Tampa at McDill. Stop, go, stop, go. More get on, more get off. You have no idea how many people depend on the CTA to get around. The bell keeps ringing on the bus ... men in the back are telling them to turn the bell off .... irritably at best. We finally arrived at the Museum of Science and Industry. It was very neat ... watched a movie about how we all came from bacteria 8,730 feet below sea level because they found fossils from some thingy that is billions of years old and the earth is some star smaller than the sun that crusted over. Yep, it was herecy. So I disagreed with it the whole time out loud. We had lunch and saw 150 frogs. It really was fun ... I would love to take the kids at some point. We leave and decide taxi???? Nah .... let's do the system all over again! Now we know what we are doing! We catch the bus ... more stopping and going. Now lots of kids are getting on after school. We get to our stop to catch the train. We wait in the cold - thank God it stopped snowing. I have a lot of hair to stuff under a hat ... my hair looked ridiculous if you can image. The train comes and we hop on. It wasn't nearly as busy. We sit down ... yep, it happens again. This man moves back and sits down in front of this black girl who has on her headphones. He just keeps looking at her and then he asks her to remove her headphones. He says to her, "you don't mind if I look at you?" She looked like she was all of 16 years old. He had to be in his 50's. She put her headphones back on. He moves to a seat almost in front and sits and just stares and smiles at her. At this point, Scott is hitting my leg because I was ready to tackle him to the ground. He proceeded to take his money out and asks her to remove her headphones again. She did. He says, "You don't mind if I look? I have money." And he flashes his money at her. She puts her headphones on again and starts to make a call. The train stops. Scott looked at me and asked, "should I just throw him off the train right before the doors close?" Hmmmm..... think he has a gun? Trains pulls out ... now he looks at me and starts mumbling something we couldn't even understand. I stared daggers at him the best I could. He kept mumbling and we just looked out the window. I am not sure what I thought we would be doing .... I really didn't know what to expect. He moves back to the girl ... back to us ... and finally he got off. It was bizarre at best. We live in a bubble. And we have no idea what is going on in the world......the sadness, the sin, the evil .... talk later more. Wide-eyed .......